Chat Away
by Kathryn0505
Summary: Set in Season 7 when Pam and Eric are silvered and waiting to meet the sun. Eric tries to talk to Pam to pass the time but he's met with a little resistance.


"Well this is fun," Eric said to break the silence.

"I'm ecstatic," Pam said flatly. She shifted in her chair which only caused the silver on her chest to move slightly and sear a new part of her skin. She hissed in response and Eric turned to look.

She ignored the look of sympathy he was giving her. "Oh, joy. We only have 7 hours left of this."

He gave her a small smile. "We'll have to entertain each other," he said.

She gave him her look of death. "What?" he asked.

"I'm uncomfortable in this sorry excuse for a chair, my chains hurt, and you want to what? Chat?" she snapped.

"Is there something wrong with that?" he asked, not understanding her attitude.

"Not at all. Chat away," she said, moving her head to indicate he should continue since she couldn't move her arms.

"What is your problem?" he asked, starting to get annoyed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she responded.

"If you didn't want to be here maybe you should have watched for Japanese businessmen sneaking up behind you with silver," he said, knowing it would piss her off.

"Excuse me?" she half-shrieked.

"You heard me."

She opened her mouth as if to say something but promptly closed it, not knowing how to respond. He wasn't exactly wrong and now he was suffering for her error. She felt her anger melt away.

"I'm sorry," she said instead, and he could see in her eyes that she meant it.

He shook his head, telling her without words not to worry about it. He wasn't concerned about meeting the sun. If the Yakuza wanted them to die, they would already be dead. They had information they needed.

"Why are you so mad at me?"

She bit her lip and looked down, something he'd seen her do many times when she had something to say that she didn't want him to hear.

"I didn't realize I was," she said.

"But you are," he persisted.

She let out a breath. "I spent all that time looking for you. I left Tara behind. I didn't eat for six months while I was searching the whole fucking planet." Her voice was rising in volume as she got more worked up. "And when I finally found you you didn't give two shits about me, about Tara, or about the fact that you were just going to die and I would never have known what happened to you." She felt tears begin to build in her eyes and tilted her head back and took a deep breath, not wanting them to fall down her face since she would have no way to wipe them away. She didn't mind Eric seeing them- he'd seen her tears dozens of times over the last century- but she would be mortified to let those Japanese dipshits see them.

She chanced a look at him to see his reaction but couldn't tell what he was thinking. "What are you looking at me like that for?" she said.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"You should be," she dismissed. "I was fucking hungry."

He frowned, mulling over that information. He had eaten a few times during the time he was gone, before he had been infected. Once he realized he'd been infected he had lost the desire to feed. The flight attendant on the plane was the first meal he'd had in a month, and even with his advanced age he'd felt the hunger build. He couldn't imagine how famished she must have felt without a meal for six months and being only a century old.

"I _am_ sorry," he said. "And I wish I could say that if I could go back in time and do it differently I would, but I'm not sure that's true. I was still grieving Nora's death and I couldn't have you there for that."

"Course not," she bit out, thoroughly sick of him freezing her out.

"Not because I don't love you or because I doubt how much you'd do for me," he told her and watched her soften a bit. "But because I am, and always will be, your maker. It's my job to be there for _you_, and I can't burden you with _my_ problems. I'm only sorry that you had to suffer for it. And I _am _sorry about Tara. My head was just somewhere else."

She didn't respond for a long while and he thought she wouldn't until she finally said, "I understand."

"Do you?"

"I do," she said truthfully. "I don't agree, but I understand." He gave her a small smile and she felt herself respond in kind. "You're just a selfish asshole," she responded playfully. "I should be used to it by now."

"I am. But you still love me?" he asked, echoing her earlier words.

"Always," she said and they lapsed back into a more comfortable silence.


End file.
